


The Arcana: Moth & Raven

by moonmoth (greyvvardenfell)



Series: Moth & Raven [3]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: (because who likes "spicy PG-13"), Alternate Canon, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rated for Future Fun, Retelling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-11-02 08:34:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20685206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyvvardenfell/pseuds/moonmoth
Summary: Former magical apprentice Reyja North is thrown head-first into a whirlwind of adventure to save the love of her life (who she just met) and possibly the world from forces she thought she understood.A reworking of Julian's route to fit my own canon and characterizations





	The Arcana: Moth & Raven

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also available with graphics and sprites from the game (as well as my own art for Reyja) at moth-and-raven.tumblr.com

The fog outside the shop I run is thick, blanketing the street in an ethereal glow. Before closing the curtains for the evening, I linger at the window to take in the scene. Something about tonight feels different, like the world is holding its breath.

“Whether you believe me or not, I will miss you.”

Asra Alnazar, my now-former master, looks across the counter at me with pain in his lavender eyes. I know nothing of his past, though he’s been telling fortunes from the back room of my shop for years. He taught me all I know of magic. He stays here when he’s in town, too. But his wanderings have taken him away more and more often recently.

“I wouldn’t go, not so soon, but it’s a moonless night on the first of the year. That’s a powerful time. And there’re things I have to do…” Asra trails off and looks away. “But I do have something for you. It's the last thing I’ll give you as your teacher, before I’m just Asra.”

He hands me a small pouch, soft black fabric embroidered with moths and moons in silver thread. Inside is a tarot deck. I gape at him, eyes wide. Energy pours from the cards and tingles through my fingers. This deck is Asra’s creation, imbued with great power, but unlike his own set of cards, these feel like me. I lift the card from the top of the stack and turn it over: the Fool, delicately painted in shades of gray and white. An unopened chrysalis, the beginning of a journey. How fitting for us both.

“Thank you, Asra. This is beautiful.”

“Would you like to try it out? I could use a reading, before I set off.”

I pull the rest of the deck out and shuffle through them. The voices of the Arcana get louder, if not clearer, as the cards slide between my fingers. “Sure, yeah. That’d be good.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that, Rey.” Asra rubs the back of his neck and glances towards the door before meeting my eyes again. “I wasn’t sure you’d be ready for them.”

I feel a surge of frustration rise in my throat, never far from the surface when I speak with Asra. As much as he’s given me, it always feels like there’s something he’s holding back. He’s never sure I’m ready for anything. I show him time and again how competent I am, and he still doesn’t trust me. Maybe it’s for the best that he’s leaving. Maybe this time, now that he’s done teaching me, he won’t come back.

I know my voice is cold when I turn my back and head into the fortune telling room. “I’m ready. And I’d hate to keep you from any of your top secret magic business, so let’s just do this so you can go.”

Asra sighs, lingering in the doorway. For a moment it seems like he might speak. Like he might attempt to explain all his coddling over the past three years. But he just shakes his head and walks to the other chair at the small, round reading table. Faust, his familiar, uncurls from his sash and winds up his arm to settle around his shoulders. With two sets of eyes watching closely, I settle into the current of magic radiating from the cards. I start to shuffle, focusing on Asra’s name in my head and his aura across from me. When a voice calls to me from the stack, sharper than the rest, I stop and pull it away from its siblings. The card back’s bold geometry stands out against the plainness of the cloth on the table before I flip it over.

“The High Priestess.”

Asra leans close, expectant. Faust holds herself off of him to explore the card’s surface with her forked tongue. “And what is she telling you?”

I study the owl’s ruby-red eyes, the flow of her feathers, the curve of her crown. The answer comes to me in words beyond a human tongue. “You’ve forsaken her.”

“I have?”

“You’ve pushed her away and buried her voice. She’s been calling to you, but you won’t listen. If you keep ignoring her, she—”

A sharp, sudden knock startles all three of us. A customer? At this time of night?

“Is the lantern still lit? Mm, it’s just as well. I’m afraid I can’t stay any longer.” Asra scoops up his bag, hat, and coat from the floor next to the pile of pillows he sleeps on. “Take care of yourself, Reyja. Please.” He still has something to say, but I know better than to push him to say it. He swallows hard before turning away. “Until we meet again, then.” He unlocks the back door with a wave of his hand and slips out into the night before I can say goodbye.

Whoever’s at the front door knocks again just as I duck back into the main shop. Impatient, by the sounds of it. It’s late, but I would rather deal with them now than have them return early in the morning. I open the door and a figure steps around me, unwinding the shawl from their neck as soon as they’re inside.

“Forgive me for the hour, but I will not suffer another sleepless night.” The visitor turns over their shoulder, and my heart leaps into my throat. The Countess, Nadia Satrinava! “Please, you must read the cards for me.”

“I-I’m sorry, our fortune teller isn’t. Um. He just left.”

The Countess arches an eyebrow, her gaze sweeping over my shop before landing on my face again. “These walls, these wares, I’ve seen them in my dreams. And I have seen you, magician. Are you not capable of readings? It is you I seek. All I ask is that you listen to my proposal.”

“You’ve dreamed about me?”

“Indeed. It is an unwelcome ability I have come to possess. My dreams are haunted by visions of a future waiting to unfold. But the future I saw, the one that brought me here, is one I will not allow to pass.”

“Oh… okay. What’s this proposal?”

“Are you nervous, perhaps? I mean you no harm, nor have you anything to fear from those under my command. I require very little of you.” She sweeps across the floor to the counter and studies a display of quartz crystals. “Come to the Palace and be my guest for a short while. You will be afforded every luxury, of course. I ask only that you bring your skill, and the Arcana.” She looks pointedly at me. “I will alert the guards to expect you tomorrow.”

Whoa, I didn’t agree to—

“But before that, I would like to see your talents for myself. May I?”

So much for just listening to a proposal. The way Countess Nadia spoke left little room for argument. Not that I would’ve been brave enough to argue with her anyway. I’ve read enough history to know that it isn’t smart to get on the bad side of the only person in charge. But I also don’t want to go to the palace! Who will watch the shop, with Asra gone? I suppose all I can do is hope whatever errand she wants me for won’t take more than a day or so. “Yeah. Yes. Right this way…” Under the Countess’s imperious stare, I usher her into the back room. My new deck is still spread over the table from Asra’s reading and it catches her eye immediately.

I sit across from her and scoop up the cards, struggling to reach the tranquil state needed for readings. Luckily, it isn’t long before someone summons me.

“The Magician.”

“How very appropriate. And what does the Magician hold for me?”

Their advice is surprisingly clear. “You have a plan, one that’s important to you.”

“And? Should I set it in motion?”

“Yes. Everything has fallen into place. Now is the time to act.”

“Say no more.” Countess Nadia rises abruptly, giving the card one last glance before striding back into the shop proper. I scramble after her. “Your fortunes are straightforward, much the same as others I have heard. And yet, you are the first to pique my interest.” She stops at the front door, shawl rewound around her head and neck, hiding her face. I open my mouth to correct her, to say that Asra is the fortune teller here, but she silences me with a piercing look. It takes me a moment to realize that she’s waiting for me to open the door for her. I may be hesitant to get on her bad side, but I’m not going to bend over backwards like that. I stay put near the counter, brow furrowed.

The Countess looks vaguely amused as she opens the door herself. “I will see you at the Palace tomorrow. Rest well.” With that, she disappears into the darkness outside the circle of lamplight around my shop door. I follow her out to extinguish the flame, then lock the door behind me when I return inside.

What a day. I drag myself upstairs and set some water boiling while I get changed for bed. The stove salamander whistles sleepily at me before the pot can boil over. I dig up some pine chips for him and measure out some dry rice for dinner, tossing it into the water to cook. There’s no point in making extra, since Asra’s gone and I won’t be here tomorrow. I scowl at myself in the mirror over the dresser as I pass. So much for a relaxing first day as a real magician.

My rice doesn’t take long and soon I’m sitting at the table, listening to the salamander crackle over his own dinner. It must be past midnight now. The rest of the city is so quiet and dark outside the window. Even the fog has lifted. But I’m still on edge. Despite all the tumult, I can’t shake the feeling I had earlier. That something big is about to happen—

*crack*

What was that?!

*rattle rattle*

It’s coming from downstairs!

*bump* *crash*

For fuck’s sake, is there someone down there?! God, this is the last thing I want to deal with. Hackles up, I grab my dagger from the dresser and summon a freezing spell then creep to the top of the stairs. There’s a shapeless black mass moving across the shop in the dark, much taller than I am. Red eyes glow from a skull-like head, shining like a beacon. Fear tightens around my stomach but I can’t let whatever that thing is get closer to me. It’s already more than halfway from the back room to the door. With a shout, I fling my spell at it, catching it in the back and sending it sprawling.

“Oof!”

Oof? Perplexed, I call light to my hand. The black mass was mainly a coat, it seems, now draped over a long-limbed man lying spread eagle on the floor. His red-eyed white skull was a plague doctor’s beaked mask, sent tumbling away during his fall. I take a few steps down the stairs toward him before I can stop myself.

“Mmm, that’ll hurt in the morning... hey! Why can’t I get up? Asra? Asra!”

This guy knows Asra? “Who are you?”

The man startles as best he can, still stuck to the floor by my spell. “Who is that? What’s going on?”

I’m finding it harder to be intimidated by him now. My earlier fear dissipates into confusion and mild amusement. “I asked first.”

He’s still struggling against the effects of the spell, but he laughs. “Heh, if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Then why are you breaking into my house?”

“Your house?”

“For the last three years, yeah.”

“I, uh, well. I was looking for—”

“Asra?”

“You know him?”

I fold my arms. The man can’t see me from his prone position, but I hope the warning in my tone is clear. “He taught me a lot of cool tricks.”

“Ah, so this, err, sticking charm is your handiwork?” He squirms. Leather squeals as he tries to free himself.

“It’s a freezing spell.”

“Freezing spell, yes. Do you think you could, ah, reverse it? Or do whatever fancy finger-wiggling you have to do to let me up? Only, mmm, one of my hands is pinned in a, ah, rather unfortunate place…”

Despite myself, I chuckle. As long as I stay on the stairs, I have an advantage over him. And he rather failed at breaking in anyway. “Fine. Just a second.” I set my dagger on the stair behind me and murmur the counterspell. He rises to his hands and knees, then flops backwards to sit on the floor and rub his wrist. After a moment, he looks over his shoulder at me, grinning broadly.

“Thank you for that. I’d hate to lose the use of my fingers. They’ve won me a lot of esteem, you know.” He seems to realize a little late that what he said could be taken as a double entendre. A blush spreads quickly across his pale skin and he clears his throat. “A-anyway. Um. You, ah, you don’t happen to know where Asra is, do you?”

“No. He never tells me where he’s going.”

“Ah. Well, then. I suppose I’ll get out of your hair.” The man levers himself upright. I was correct about one thing, anyway: he is significantly taller than me. “Unless…”

“What?”

He taps his chin with a gloved finger. “Those cards of his, did he teach you about them? How to read their secrets, the future, what have you?”

“I can read tarot, yes.”

“Excellent! We’ll ask those, then. That is, if you would do me the honor?”

For some reason, my stomach swoops alarmingly when he shoots another smile my way. I nod before I realize what I’m doing and finish descending the staircase. He follows me into the back room, almost looming over me in his eagerness to reach the reading table. I’m suddenly very aware that I’m in my robe and that I don’t even know this man’s name, or what he wants with Asra.

If he notices the blush on my cheeks, he doesn’t comment. He watches me gather the cards and begin to shuffle, his visible eye darting between my hands.

“Sorry, but before I ask anything, I have to know your name.”

“What’s that?” As if emerging from a trance, he looks up into my face, slightly dazed.

“Your name? For the reading.”

“Oh. Right. Of course.” He pauses for a moment before smiling. “I’m Julian.”

I can’t hold eye contact with him for very long. “Okay. This’ll only be a second…” But it takes a little longer than I expect. His aura is nervous, and it makes the cards’ whispers harder to hear. My own energy is fading too, exhausted after the long day. Eventually, though, something speaks to me.

“Death.”

Before I can begin to explain what it’s saying to me, Julian interrupts, laughing raucously. “Death? Death? Ohoho, there’s one for you, Asra. A hearty fuck you, as we’d say in the old days.” He slams his hands palms-down on the table and stands up, whirling out of the room.

“Hey, wait a minute!” I follow him into the main shop. “Death isn’t about ‘fuck yous,’ it’s—”

But Julian sighs, shaking his head. “No, no. It’s alright. I should’ve known. He’s shifty, that one. I shouldn’t have tried to fight fire with fire. Never works.” He looks down at me. “And I shouldn’t have tried to get you involved. I’m sorry about that. But you’ve been very hospitable, despite my, err, breaking and entering.”

I don’t know what to say. All I can do is watch lamely as he picks up his mask and stares into its glassy red eyes.

“If he returns, well. Tell him… tell him Ilya’s back for the closure he ran away from. That should get him out looking for me.” Julian laughs coldly and fixes the mask back in place around his head. He makes his way to the door in a billow of black and red. “Thank you for your time, shopkeep. I’ve never been a lucky man, but maybe it was luck that led me to you tonight. Maybe I’m one step closer now.” He wrenches the door open and steps out into the night. “And maybe, if luck is kind, we’ll meet again someday.” With a swirl of his coat, he’s gone.


End file.
